Harry Potter and the Golden 37
by Yewchung
Summary: Voldemort chooses to attack the Potters one day later. Harry is raised to become a Hitman, and every single one of his future classmates are raised to become Badasses. Now they go to Hogwarts, but find that Voldemort has not spent the last ten years idle. Featuring 37 protagonists, including Smart!Powerful!Harry, as well as Smart!Powerful!Everybody else. AU.


**Harry Potter and the Golden 37**

or "Yewchung tries to write a fanfiction with 37 protagonists"

**Chapter 1: Origins**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, his 36 classmates, or any of the other books or TV shows that I am referencing here, regardless of how little they resemble their canon selves.

* * *

October 31, 1981

It rained.

Tom Riddle, better known as Lord Voldemort, looked out the window at the pouring rain. He had made many plans for this day, and while the rain certainly didn't stop him from executing them, he felt that for such a momentous occasion, the atmosphere should be perfect. So he chose to put off his plans for murder until the next day.

He had no idea just how influential that one decision would be.

* * *

November 1, 1981

Early the next morning, the newly appointed Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was woken up by a frantic knocking. She quickly got up, pulled on a shirt, and answered her door. Outside was Moody, looking quite solemn.

"What is it, Mad-Eye," she asked, yawning.

Moody looked at her, a sorrowful expression on his face. "We've caught the Death Eaters. All of them." His face didn't reflect the joy that this statement should have brought.

Amelia noted this, and realised that there must be something more. "What happened, Alastor?"

The old Auror sighed. "The reason we caught them is because they all pulled simultaneous attacks on hundreds of families, both magical and muggle, across all of Britain. We sent out Aurors to every location that they went to, and were able to capture every one. From what we've managed to get out of one of them, there was supposed to be some sort of big event that would have prevented us from catching them."

Amelia's face fell as she heard the news. "Well, at least we've stopped the Death Eaters. Now no more families can get hurt."

Moody nodded, but his face remained sullen. "We rescued over a hundred children from the Death Eaters. For some reason, every family they targeted had a very young child. They're all orphans now." He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Amelia. "Here's a list of names. All the children are being held at the Ministry for now, until we figure out what to do with them."

"Say, Moody," said Amelia, "what about You-Know-Who? Was he caught as well?"

Moody shook his head. "No, we never found You-Know-Who. He's crippled now, with all his Death Eaters gone, but he's still powerful. The war isn't quite over yet."

"Oh." Amelia had been hoping that he had been caught. That the war could be over here and now. "You know Moody, somehow I have a feeling that this war will be over sooner that you expect."

Moody smiled a hollow smile. "I certainly hope you're right."

* * *

The war ended thirteen hours later, when the darkest wizard the world had ever known was killed by a defenseless one year old baby.

Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, soon joined the thirty-six other magical babies at the Ministry of Magic.

And the Auror in charge of taking care of the babies was not having a good time.

"Come on, please just drink the milk. Please." Auror Thomas Deepwater cooed as he tried to maneuver a bottle of milk into the mouth of yet another uncooperative baby. The baby's ID tag identified him as Seamus Finnigan, but at this point the Auror couldn't care less, having repeated this procedure with many other babies already, and knowing that he still had many more to feed.

There was a knock at the door, and Thomas looked at the little window to see his friend Arthur Weasley waving to him from the door. Sighing, Thomas abandoned this baby as a lost cause and went to answer the door. To his absolute horror, he found that Arthur had _yet another baby_ in his arm, whose bright red hair revealed his relation to Arthur. Under his other arm he was holding some sort of strange metallic box with all sorts of dials and levers on it.

"How's it going, Tom?" Arthur asked cheerily.

Thomas groaned. "It's… horrible really. Half the babies are crying all the time, and I can't seem to work out why they're crying, and when they finally stop crying the other half start crying, and…" he cut off his own string of complaints. "What are you doing here, Arthur?"

Arthur grinned as he presented the baby to Thomas. "You remember Ronald, right?" Thomas nodded in the affirmative. "Well, I thought that as long as there's all these children here already, I might as well bring Ron to play with them."

"Well, you probably want to tag him then," said Thomas, pulling out of his pocket one of the name tags they were tying to the children's wrists to help identify them. "This room already has enough red-heads, and you don't want to be bringing home someone else's baby by mistake." He helped Arthur to tie the tag to his son's wrist, then released him to play with the other children.

Arthur thought for a moment. "Say Tom, do you want to go get a bite? You're looking really stressed, and I think a break is exactly what you need right now."

Thomas smiled a tired smile. "I really would like to Arthur, but I've got to look after these babies."

"Why don't I pick something up for you then?" responded Arthur, cheerily. He put the box down on the floor and pulled out a quill and paper. "Here, name anything you'd like, and I'll bring it back for you."

Thomas smiled, a genuine one this time, and asked Arthur to just get him whatever looks good. Arthur shrugged and put the quill and paper away again, then left to get the food. It wasn't until a few minutes after Arthur had left that Thomas realized the mechanical box was still there, and by that point one of the babies had already crawled over to it and was leaning on a switch, preparing to pull it. Thomas' eyes widened as he realised what was about to happen, but by the time he could react it was too late. The switch was pulled, the machine glowed bright white, and everyone in the room disappeared.

* * *

"An experimental teleportation device?" asked Amelia Bones furiously.

"Yes, yes, that's what it was," responded Arthur Weasley, wringing his hat in nervousness and fear. "It was supposed to allow for instant travel to anywhere in the world, but the location settings were still broken. The babies could be quite literally anywhere in the world."

Amelia rubbed her temples, trying to control her temper. "Arthur, I realise that your own son was in there, and that you probably feel worse than I do, but _why did you bring an experimental teleporter in here?_" The last part she put particular emphasis on, her voice shaking with barely controlled rage.

"I… I was supposed to be delivering it to the Department of Mysteries," said Arthur in a very small voice. "I didn't realise I'd left it-"

Amelia cut him off. "The Savior of the Wizarding World was in there!" she nearly screamed. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, then tried to think of a solution. "Alright so, babies appearing out of nowhere is not generally a normal occurrence. Therefore, all we need to do is keep an eye out for reports of mysterious babies, and we'll have them all back soon enough." She looked almost cheerful at this. "After all, who would just keep a baby and not tell anybody about it?"

* * *

Jack Johnson was the Head of the IHO, or International Hitmen Orginization. That wasn't his real name, as his actual identity had been long since purged from all records. He had no family, no friends, and nobody knew what he looked like. As far as most of the world was concerned, he didn't exist.

He was a retired hitman, and one of the best at that. In his time he had performed hundreds of hits, and he had seen a lot of strange things along the way. He had taken down a demon in Egypt, fought a dragon in Romania, and he had once even visited the Oracle at Delphi, whose eyes had glowed white as she spoke, who had predicted that at some point in his life, someone would enter it, someone with bright green eyes and a scar on their forehead. Someone who would save the world.

One thing that he had never seen before, however, was a baby suddenly appearing out of thin air above his desk. With reflexes honed by decades of work, he caught the baby in his arms almost the instant it appeared. Furrowing his eyebrows, he tried to make sense of this situation. Then he noticed the baby's eyes, which glowed a bright green. Almost reverently, he pushed the hair away from the baby's forehead, revealing scar shaped like a lightning bolt.

That was when Jack noticed the name tag on the boy's wrist. "Harry Potter huh?" He held the boy at arms length and looked at him. "So you're the boy who's going to save the world some day." The baby blew a spit bubble in response, and Jack, for the first time in his life, almost smiled.

* * *

Master Takashi watched as several dozen people dressed all in black sparred with each other. The sounds of Kunai, Shuriken, and Katanas clashing filled the room as the class of ninjas trained. Takashi intervened only occasionally, his voice suddenly appearing from behind a student to correct their posture, or to criticise their form, although the man appeared to sit motionless at the back of the classroom the entire time.

Suddenly, the Master Ninja leapt from his seat, faster than anyone could see, and dove over the classroom to intercept the bundle that had suddenly appeared high above the practice floor. The ninja all turned to see him now standing at the front of the classroom, with a small child in his arms.

Takashi held the baby up for all to see. The boy's hair was a very light blonde, almost white, and upon being held up he looked straight at the ninjas with piercing light grey eyes. The crowd collectively gasped as they recognised the features, the ones belonging to the child described in their ancient prophecy. The one that would save the world.

Takashi spoke in Japanese, his voice projecting clear and strong. "There can be no doubts that this is the child of prophecy. He appeared before us today to let us know that we must help him, train him in our ways. We must help him to help us." He lowered the baby slightly, turning the baby to face him. "I will adopt him as if he were my own son, and raise him to become the most powerful ninja the world has ever known." He noted the tag on the boy's wrist, and addressed the crowd for the final time. "He will be addressed as Draco Malfoy."

* * *

James Pond was a man of action, a man of excitement, a man who was a secret agent for the MI7, or the British Supernaturals agency. He had been on hundreds of missions, and fought hundreds of enemies. He had thought that nothing could surprise him now. But that was proven wrong when he walked into the office expecting to hear his usual greeting from his secretary, Miss Honeypenny, and instead found her holding a baby in her arms.

"A baby, Miss Honeypenny? I admit I was out for a while, it certainly wasn't long enough for you to give birth."

"Oh double-oh six, this little baby just suddenly appeared on my desk about an hour ago. I've talked with M, and he says it's alright for me to keep him, as long as he doesn't interfere with my work."

James sauntered over to the desk and petted the baby on the head. "Have you come up with a name for him yet, Honeypenny?"

The secretary held up a tag. "He's already got a name. He appeared with this tag on his wrist, I assume as an identifier." She handed the tag to James, who read it.

"Michael Corner. A good name."

* * *

Martin Anderson sat in his office, fanning himself. He glared at the still broken air conditioning, as if he could somehow, by sheer force of will, cause it to fix itself. It getting hotter and hotter these days, and if he didn't get his AC fixed soon, he'd be in for another sweltering winter.

He chose to ignore the files and papers that he was supposed to file as the Head of the OSS, and instead decided to down a few shots of whiskey while looking over his old photographs. He sat at his desk a bit sadly, going through picture after picture of his younger self, travelling the world, going on missions, having adventures… and now he was stuck in a desk job because he was "too old" to continue working in the field.

His trained reflexes, however, showed themselves when he caught a brown haired boy out of midair before it could knock over his whiskey.

"Where did you come from?" he asked out loud. The baby didn't respond, although Martin didn't really expect it to. Looking at this child, Martin realised what this had to be. Though he himself was getting old, he could perhaps pass on the torch on to someone younger. The baby raised a hand to try to touch Martin's nose, and tied to it was a tag.

"I suppose this is your name then, isn't it?" Martin said as he read the tag. "Well then, Justin Finch-Fletchley, I'm going to teach you to be the best secret agent ever."

* * *

Ricardo jumped off the roof and onto another, free running as quickly as he could to escape the mob of angry soldiers behind him. A couple tried firing their guns at him, but a few quick Ki blasts cleared them away. In the distraction provided by the rebounding bullets, Ricardo ducked behind the giant Jesus statue to hide from his pursuers, attuning his Ki to the Chameleon style in order to make himself harder to spot.

Suddenly he heard a crying sound from above him, and he looked up to see a baby hanging on the outstretched arm of Christ. Hiding would have to wait. He changed his Ki attunement to the Monkey style, and clambered up the statue. He ignored the shouts from below, knowing that none of the soldiers would dare shoot at him and risk hitting the statue. Soon enough he was level with the crying baby, and he launched himself towards the child while switching to Bird Style. He didn't exactly glide down, but he certainly didn't hit the ground as hard as he otherwise would, clutching the baby girl to his chest.

Eventually he was able to lose his pursuers and return back to base. Quickly greeting the others, he went to his room, where he inspected the baby. The girl's skin was much too pale to be a local, but her eyes seemed to hold a spark of something, maybe magic, that caused Ricardo to make the decision to keep her, and train her in his arts. Pulling the name tag off, he consulted it to figure out what this girl was called. "Well, welcome to the Rebels of Rio, Pansy Parkinson."

* * *

Petal noticed as Leaf returned to the forest clearing, a strange bundle in her arms. Leaf quickly ran over to the circle she and Petal shared, and beckoned Petal to come in as well.

Once they were both in the circle, Leaf revealed the contents of the bundle. "Look what I found by the pond!" she said excitedly, revealing the small brown haired girl in her arms.

Petal narrowed her eyes and brushed the hair away from the baby girl's ears, then gasped when she saw their roundness. "A human? How could a human have gotten here? You know it's against the rules for a human to be in Fey territory!"

Leaf shrugged offhandedly. "You know what I always say, Petal. Some rules are meant to be broken. Besides, this way we could have the child we've always wanted." She extended one hand out and held Petal's hand in her own.

Petal sighed, conceding to Leaf. "Fine, she can stay," said Petal in a mix of false exasperation and happiness. "We'll have to register her as our child soon. What should we call her?"

Leaf looked at the small paper tag that had been tied to the girl's wrist. The paper was now just an unreadable mess, as all the ink had run while it soaked in the pond. Instead, Leaf decided on using the most Fairy-like name she had heard during her time in the human world.

"Let's call her Fay."

* * *

Joseph walked, as he had for the past few thousand years, and as he knew he would continue to walk for a few thousand more.

He walked through countries, over mountains, and even along the bottom of the ocean. The curse he had been given long ago, immortality at the cost of being forced to forever roam the Earth, never able to stay in one place for long.

It was while he was walking through yet another empty stretch of land that he happened upon a baby. The child was simply sitting there, in the middle of a wide open field with nothing at all for several miles in every direction. Joseph approached the child, wondering what such a baby was doing way out here.

In his long, long life, Joseph had seen and met many people, and watched as each of them aged and crumbled into dust just as they were getting interesting. From his travels, he had acquired knowledge of almost anything, and when he looked at that baby, he realised that it was time to pass the knowledge on to somebody else.

And so he picked up the baby, who stared at him with it's innocent eyes, still untainted by the horrors of the world, or so Joseph thought. _This will be a difficult life for this girl, growing up eternally on the move and never stopping…_ He then realised that he didn't have a name for the girl. He decided to check the name tag.

"Millicent Bulstrode," he rasped, using his voice for the first time in years, every sentence sounding like it was being excavated from the bottom of an ancient tomb. "Let us walk."

* * *

Morgana looked up from the spell scroll as she felt a surge of magical energy somewhere on her island. Sighing, she put down her quill and grabbed her Dark Staff. She threw open her door and trudged down the many stone steps that led from her Dark Tower to the shore. When she finished descending the steps, she held her staff up and spoke in an annoyed voice.

"You're early, Mer. Come on out so we can fight." She looked around the icey cove, waiting for a response. When none came, she frowned and sent out a surge of dark magic to search the area. Her frown increased when, instead of the young adult wizard that she expected, she instead picked up a one year old baby.

"What's this?" She strode over to where she had detected the child and picked the baby girl up, looking at it quizzically. On a hunch, she scanned the baby with a Dark Scan, and was somewhat surprised to find that it was magical, and quite strongly at that. Morgana wasn't really one to believe in fate, but somehow, right when she had been thinking about preparing an heir, this child had shown up. "I suppose you're going to be the next Morgana then," she said to the squealing baby. "What's your name?" She was preparing to run a Dark Mindscan when she noticed the tag on the baby's wrist.

"So, it's Megan Jones? Well then, we'll have to start on your training right away."

* * *

Dick Grayson donned the rubber mask and the black cowl for the first time. Once, he had been sidekick to the previous owner of this mask, and now he was to continue the old man's legacy.

Clipping his toolbelt to his waist, Dick checked his supplies. Here was the Batarang that old Bruce loved to use so much. Here was the Batclaw that came in so useful. In this suit, everywhere was memories of Bruce, even some that Dick would rather forget.

Having changed into the full suit, he walked over to the Batmobile, ready to continue the night patrols that Bruce had forced him on every night. Out of the corner of his eye, Dick saw the glass container, the one containing Jason Todd's old suit. Lowering his eyes, Dick wondered if it was time to find someone to continue the Robin legacy as well.

Suddenly he heard a sound from somewhere in the Batcave, the sound of crying. Looking around, he quickly found the source of the noise to be coming from the Batmobile, and more specifically from a baby that sat in the passenger seat, the one normally reserved for the Robin. The symbolism was clear. Dick picked the baby up and cradled it in his arms, carrying it over to the nearest table before calling for Alfred.

The old butler quickly arrived in the Batcave, his face a mask, hiding the surprise he felt at the sight of the baby. "You called?"

"Yes, yes. Alfred, prepare another room for this child. He is to be the new Robin."

"It shall be done, sir. May I ask the child's name?"

Dick looked at the tag on the baby's wrist, and almost smiled. The symbolism was so obvious. He looked and was even able to see the same spark in the baby's eyes as there once was in Bruce's. "His name is Wayne. Wayne Hopkins."

* * *

The icy winds howled across the frozen land, snow and ice the only things visible in any direction. Within these winds floated a gathering of Ice Spirits, circling around the Southmost Pole of the world as they did every month. They danced and blew their frozen breath into the center of the circle, forming tiny midair crystals and snowflakes that quickly drifted to the ground.

Vaas, one such spirit, was the first to notice the movement in the snow. Swooping over to the tiny shivering mound in the snow, he blew a gust of cold wind over the lump, blowing the snow off and revealing the almost frozen form of a tiny baby child.

Jumping back in shock, he quickly gathered the attention of the other spirits. The circle of nature spirits gathered around the baby, wondering what they could do.

"It is a human baby. It won't last ten minutes out here," hissed a spirit named Riit.

"What should we do?" asked Vaas nervously.

"What can we do?" responded Riit. "I am not sure there is anything we can do."

Suddenly one spirit, this one named Haal, piped up. "I think I know what we can do," she said. Haal then leaned over the baby and gave it a bit of her magic. As the baby absorbed the magic, its skin shifted to become slightly more blue, and its hair more white. The other spirits, realizing what she was doing, too imparted a touch of their magic to the baby. Soon the child's skin was entirely a light blue, just like them, and its hair a bright white. The baby stopped shivering, now one with the ice.

"It is one of us now," said Vaas. "We must keep it."

"What is its name then?" asked Riit.

The snow was blown off of the frozen tag, and the group gathered around to read it. "Her name is Mandy Brocklehurst," said Haal. "And she is the newest Spirit of the Ice."

* * *

Jason Cartwell was just a normal guy. He worked a day job at the local supermarket, and spent his nights trying to work on his novel. He had a routine, one which was rarely interrupted. He drove to work in the morning, worked, then drove home.

Then one day, a day just like any other, he coasting down the highway on the way home from his workplace. He felt a tingling in the back of his neck, as if something were about to happen, and suddenly a baby appeared directly in front of his car.

When the police arrived, they found only a dead baby on the hood of the car, its bones crushed by the force of the impact. Jason was frantically trying to explain what had happened to the police officer, and the baby was being bagged to be sent to the morgue. As the officer was bagging the baby, he noticed a small name tag attached to the baby's wrist, with the words "Lisa Turpin" written on it.

* * *

Leonard Mason was a scientist, and a roboticist. He worked for the government, designing and building robots and drones for both military and non-military use. He was considered by many to be one of the best in his field. However, to his great regret, the only project that he truly cared about was a failure.

He and his wife had moved to Hawaii for his job a few years ago, and after deciding they wanted to spend the rest of their lives there, had bought a house and settled down. Soon, the two of them decided that they were ready for children. But it was apparently not to be. After months of failure, a visit to the doctor revealed what they had been fearing. Leonard was sterile.

Refusing to accept this defeat, Leonard decided to attempt something he had never tried before. Applying everything he knew, he constructed a robot, one which he hoped could simulate life. However, no matter what he tried, it didn't work. No matter how well programmed the responses were, his robot was eternally lacking something, something that afforded life.

Then, one day when he headed into the office to work on his projects, he heard from one of the others about a baby, one that had been brought in but an hour ago, one that nobody could identify. That was when Leonard realised what had been missing. And so, he snuck into the Mourge and began his dark work, dissecting the baby and removing its brain, and sneaking the vital organ off to his lab.

He spent all that day and night working, trying to adapt the robot, but finally, after many hours of work, he succeeded. The android's eyes lit up as it powered on, the voice box vibrated, and a gentle cooing emitted from the its mouth. Leonard almost broke down in tears as he cradled his creation, holding it against his chest and whispering assurances that it would all be fine.

The next morning he returned to his house with the bot in his arms, showing to his wife, telling her that it had finally worked, that he had finally done it. Telling her about everything but the vital component, the dark secret that he would carry to his grave.

They named her Lisa.

* * *

In the mountains of Tibet, there was a temple. This temple was hidden, nestled between two mountain peaks in such a way that it would be impossible for anybody to see it from whatever their vantage point, unless they were somehow flying. That was also the only way to enter or exit the temple, as it had no doors or entrances on ground level.

Master Aira was the main Teacher of the Temple of Air, and as such it was up to her to teach the young Air Monks to work the air. It was she who taught them how to manipulate air currents, control air pressure, and even to lift themselves up using their control of air. Every day the class of monks practiced for hours their forms and techniques, and every day she watched them train.

It was on one such day that she felt a disturbance in the air, one that she at first could not understand. As she quickly gathered all of her senses to her, she confirmed that she had glimpsed. There was some small object plummeting straight down towards the temple. Already reacting more than thinking, she raced over to where the object would land, using a gust of wind to push her there faster, and then gathered all the currents she could to push straight upwards, hoping to slow the fall of the object.

As the object broke the cloud layer above her, she narrowed her eyes. It was a baby! Carefully controlling the currents with the mastery of one who had been training for decades, she slowly lowered the child, directing it towards her arms.

When she had caught the boy in her arms, she looked up to see every other monk in the temple staring at her in awe. Eventually one older monk spoke up.

"It is he! It is the child from the Heavens! The prophesied Child of Air!"

There was a great clamoring as the others reacted to this declaration. Aira waited until the chatter died down before speaking.

"Truly, we have been blessed on this day, for our temple to be given the honor to raise the Child of Air. He shall become one of us, eat with us, sleep with us. I shall personally train him until he is ready." She held the child up for all to see, the baby's hair flowing in the wind. "We shall welcome this child into our temple, this Child of Air known as Dean Thomas."

* * *

James de la Vega sheathed his rapier, having taken out the final criminal. Looking around the bank, he assessed the damages. The criminals had intimidated the bankers, but had not actually killed anyone, luckily. One woman had been hit in the arm by one of the bullets that he had failed to deflect, on account of his ankle being twisted. James muttered furiously at himself as he tore as strip of cloth off of his shirt to bandage the woman's arm.

Soon he heard the wail of police sirens outside, and looked up as a squad of policemen rushed in. When they noticed that all of the robbers were already down, they lowered their guns and allowed their squad leader, Mark Cameron, to pass through.

"Well, Zorro, you've done it again," the man said, smiling. "You've done a great service for us. If it hadn't been for you they probably would have gotten away."

James nodded to the officer, standing as he finished his bandaging. "Thank you officer, but right now this woman must been seen to. She was injured by a bullet in the fight, and I was unable to deflect it."

"Well you heard the man, go get her some help!" Mark ordered one of the junior officers away, and then had the rest of the officers round up the group of criminals. "Great job once again, Zorro."

"Always glad to help, officer," said James. He then walked out of the bank and jumped straight up, seeming to disappear.

It was on his way back to his home that James heard the cries, and as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop, he was able to pinpoint the source of the noise to a flagpole that sat atop the Royal Hotel. Shading his eyes from the sun, he peered up and saw a baby clutching onto the flagpole for dear life. Running, he launched himself up the building, jumping from windowsill to windowsill as he climbed the side of the hotel. When he neared the top, he jumped out towards the flagpole and, with a Ki powered air jump, picked the baby up off the flagpole and landed atop the building's roof.

"Where did you come from, little one?" he asked. He noted the small name tag on the boy's wrist. "You're not from around here, are you?" Considering it for a few moments, he made a decision. He was getting old, and had not had a son. He would adopt this boy to pass on the Zorro legacy to.

"Well then, Little Longbottom. It seems that you are to become the next Zorro."

* * *

The woman who went by the name "Ms. Z" stepped out of her office, holding a baby and a strange box with numerous dials and levers on it. The other Unspeakables knew better than to ask where the baby or the machine had come from, or where either was going.

Ms. Z passed through the many complicated and twisted rooms of the Department of Mysteries, weaving her way through as only one who had grown up in the Department, and knew of its every secret could. Soon she arrived at a small room that was tucked away somewhere in the extra dimensional folds of the Department. A room with no sign on the door, though one would soon be affixed there, one reading "Time Loops".

Ms. Z placed the child on the bed that had been prepared specifically for this purpose, knowing that her actions now would decide this child's future. She pulled from one pocket a small needle filled with liquidised Time Dust, and carefully injected a small amount into the baby's blood. She then repeated the process with a needle of Space Gel, some Thought Fluid, and a bit of Language Syrup. She carefully injected just a drop of Amortentia, and very carefully injected the tiniest possible amount of Fluidised Veil.

Finished, she carefully returned the needles back into the bag, and stood, sweating a bit. Now, she knew she would have to fill out a form declaring the child property of the Department of Mysteries, then train the child to use the powers that she had just been granted by the mixture of substances. After all, she was the only possible person who could teach the child.

Pushing back the bushy haired baby's sleeve, she looked at the name tag tied to her wrist, one that read "Hermione Granger". Then, she pulled back her own sleeve to reveal an identical tag around her own wrist, except that hers was twenty years older.

* * *

Master Sampa stepped through the shadows, his bare feet making no sound or footprint as he moved around the building. He passed by a group of guards near the entrance, and suddenly all of the guards fell to the ground, dead. Sampa shook the blood off of his fingernails, then grabbed the group of guards and tossed their corpses into the shadows, effectively causing them to disappear.

He strode into the Indian villa, ignoring the smaller houses to his left and right as he moved directly towards the main house. He flicked his tongue into the air, detecting the positions of the guards around the house. A few carefully thrown poison needles dealt with them, and Master Sampa snaked his way up the side of the house to a balcony that opened into the master bedroom. He simply opened the door, surprising the politician who sat inside. Before either could say a word, Master Sampa closed the distance between him and his target and sunk his sharpened teeth into the man's neck, the poison that coated his teeth flowing into the man's bloodstream and killing him within seconds.

Sampa wiped his mouth onto the man's shirt, then froze as he noticed another presence in the room, one that hadn't been there a moment before. A presence directly behind him. A presence that seemed oddly… small? He flash stepped to behind the dead politician's body and peeked at the presence that had suddenly made itself known.

That presence was a one year old boy, sitting on top of the dresser. Sampa raised one eyebrow quizzically at the baby. Breaking cover, he walked over to the baby to assess it. Somehow this baby had been able to hide its presence so well that not even Sampa had been able to detect it. Not only that, but- Sampa tasted the air again -the boy had a scent about him, a scent that Master Sampa had tasted several times before, most recently a few years ago when he had been sent to kill a group of people who were able to shoot fire out of sticks. This was a taste that he recognised as the taste of magic.

Sampa realized that it was perhaps time for him to adopt a personal apprentice, one who would carry on his special style of the Secret Art of the Snake. Perhaps the boy, with his magic, could even improve the style. Picking up the boy, Master Sampa prepared to exit the villa again and report the job done, with a baby named Anthony Goldstein tucked under his arm.

* * *

Chi Se Lin, master of the Spirit Sword, sat down at his spot in the council room. The other masters, such as Kai Li Fei, master of the Ki Sword, and Wu Shen Lei, master of the Magic Sword, were already there. The fourth seat, the one that should belong to the master of the Nature Sword, was conspicuously empty.

Li Fei was the first to speak. "We are gathered here today to decide upon the new master of the Nature Sword."

"Bring out the Apprentices," said Shen Lei. A door behind the empty Nature seat was opened, and ten people emerged from it, ranging from a child to a young adult. The three other masters inspected the boys, seemingly looking for something that only they could see.

Finally, Li Fei spoke. "You, on the end. Show us your best move." The student nodded, then unsheathed his sword. He swung the sword very quickly in many directions, each slash of the blade leaving a different element behind it, from fire to wind to water to earth. When he had finished his demonstration, he sheathed his sword and bowed, returning to his position.

Suddenly Shen Lei reacted to something the other two could not detect, and he jumped into ready position, his sword already in his hand. A baby popped into existence in the center of the council room, and lay upon the floor. Holding a hand out to caution the others, Shen Lei carefully approached the baby, his sword at the forefront the entire time. Soon he reached close enough to perform a basic scan of the baby. He gasped when he saw the results.

"This boy… he must be the one," breathed Shen Lei. "He is attuned to all four schools, and seems to be quite powerful in all of them."

"You don't mean… he can't be!" cried Se Lin in disbelief.

Shen Lei nodded. "He must be. This boy must be the fated one, who would one day lead our peoples and bring great glory to the Shenjian clan." Carefully manipulating the child's arm, he drew out the tag upon the child's wrist. "He is the one who will lead us into the future, and build our clan back up to what it once was. He is… Blaise Zabini."

* * *

Adrik Vasilev sat down heavily on the rec room couch. He acknowledged greetings from some of the other members of the force, but mostly he just sat there, taking deep breaths.

Adrik was the oldest active member of the police force, and every day he was reminded of it. Although in his younger years he had been one of the best men on the force, Adrik realised that he was getting old. He no longer had the energy to stop a moving train without feeling winded, and he had lost quite a bit of the strength that had once allowed him to flip a commercial airliner with only his fists. Though his Ki reserves were still fairly high, Adrik could tell how much slower he was in generating Ki, and he could see just how much his Ki control had slipped. These days, it was only his reputation from his younger years that kept him on the force. Anybody else would already have been retired.

Getting up from the couch, Adrik decided that he needed fresh air. He climbed up the staircase to the roof and stood leaning over the edge, wondering if he still had enough Ki to save himself from an eight story drop.

Adrik was about to turn away from the edge when he saw the baby appear in midair just off the roof, and begin its plummet towards the unyielding pavement below. Reacting, Adrik threw himself off of the building and wrapped his arms around the baby, then twisted himself around in midair so that his back was facing the ground, and between the ground and the baby.

As he neared the ground, he flared his Ki up, trying to use it to both reinforce his body and form an impact shield on his back. As the Ki shield snapped into existence, Adrik realised something horrible. He didn't have enough Ki to project a shield that would stop the impact. He wouldn't be able to stop himself from breaking his bones on the pavement. At least the baby would survive.

Several minutes later, some of the other policemen found Adrik lying on the pavement, seemingly unable to move. The baby clutched in his arms was pulled out and brought into the main police station while somebody called the Hospital.

A week later, Adrik was finally declared well enough to be visited by his friends. His buddies from the force visited him the first day possible, and they brought the baby with them too.

Adrik looked at the baby with a mixture of happiness and sadness, as if everything he had gone through was worth it for this baby's happiness. "I did not have enough Ki," he told the others. "I knew that I wouldn't be able to form a shield strong enough to prevent damage while also covering my whole body. So I lost my legs."

Despite everything, he remained cheerful throughout the entire visit, especially when he held the baby, cradling it in his arms. "I think I may adopt this child from nowhere, and raise it as my own," he said, tickling the baby on its nose. He noticed the paper tag attached to the baby's wrist, and flipped it up. "It seems I don't need to name this baby, as it has already its own name." He smiled. "Tracey Davis, my daughter."

* * *

The roaring waves broke upon the beach, pounding the earth into fine sand, slowly wearing it away as it had for the past thousands of years. The water entirely surrounded the crescent shaped island, the strip of tropical forest on the bit of land entirely untouched by man. No human had ever set foot on this island. One had, however, just landed upon the shore.

A baby named Seamus Finnegan was pushed onto the beach by the rolling tides. As the waves crashed over him, his unconscious form was tumbled up and down the beach, each wave drawing him closer to the perilous deep water. Eventually, a very large wave washed over him, and entirely swept him out to sea.

He tumbled through the deep water, a few bubbles escaping from his mouth. Suddenly he was caught by some force and borne up to the surface of the water, where he was held above the sea by the arms of a mermaid, or more specifically, a siren. Soon, a second siren joined the first.

The first siren spoke in the language of the Merpeople. "Where has this landchild come from?" it sung delicately. "There are no landlings anywhere near here."

"Perhaps it is a child of the sea, Ela?" mused the second siren, a bit wistfully.

Ela smiled at her friend's continued belief in these childhood tales. "Perhaps it is, Lia. Perhaps it is." She pet the head of the baby, wondering what to do with it. Wherever this boy had come from, with no landlings anywhere, she would have to either dump it or keep it.

Lia seemed to know what she was thinking. "I suggest you keep it, Ela. After all, those who raise children of the sea all become blessed as well."

"But where would it live?" worried Ela. "A landchild certainly cannot survive for long at sea."

"Then raise him upon the Isle of the Moon, where the last child of the sea was raised." Lia said, smiling happily. "Oh, it will be just like in the stories of Perseus!"

Ela smiled and agreed, and the two of them swam into the crest of the Isle of Moon, preparing to help this child of the sea to grow.

* * *

Halfway around the world, a baby appeared upon a very different island.

Waves beat against the sheer cliffs that surrounded the island. In the center of this seaborne rock sat a building, a building filled with ghosts and specters, a place where no happiness was found, a place known as Azkaban.

When a small baby appeared on the bottommost level of Azkaban, it went unnoticed by the Aurors on duty, who remained in the upper levels whenever possible. It went unnoticed by the prisoners on that level, as their minds were all far too broken to notice anything. It was, however, noticed by the Dementors.

Soon after the boy's appearance, Dementors began to congregate around the strange child, unable to decide what to do. It seemed that the child had no unhappy memories, or at the very least had not yet any memories which he associated with unhappiness. The dementors tried to take the boy's happiness, and found it an infinite wellspring of happiness, but not of substantial happiness, and thus the boy would not feed them. The one thing the boy did have, though, was his soul.

Eventually one Dementor approached the boy to kiss him and take his soul. As the dementor approached the child, however, the feeling of happiness from him only amplified, and by the time the dark creature was laying its lips on the boy, his happiness had so permeated the Dementor that it found itself unable to complete the task. And so, while the Dementor had sucked out most of the boy's soul, a whisp of it still remained within him, a very small fraction of a soul, a tiny piece that the Dementors soon realised matched their own.

So, the Dementors gathered around the boy to bask in his warmth, and accepted the boy, knowing that the boy was more like them than any other human they had ever known. They watched him, studied him, and wondered if perhaps, if this young boy with only a small division of soul could be this happy, perhaps they could as well.

And that is how Stephen Cornfoot was taken in by Dementors.

* * *

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle appeared in Britain. Both were teleported to a street somewhere, and to a smoke shop somewhere. Both appeared and immediately were taken up by an English doctor of fairly high intelligence.

The only difference is, these smoke shops were in different cities.

* * *

Doctor Jonathan Williams (PhD) was a professor at Oxford. He was primarily a theoretical physicist, and he studied such topics as time, space, and alternate dimensions. He was generally considered a very brilliant fellow, who would likely revolutionize the entire field of Physics by the time he was fifty.

He was also not from this dimension.

Doctor Jonathan Williams stepped out of a smoking blue box, pushing his goggles up onto his forehead and wondering where he was now. Looking around him, he found himself in the middle of a wide green field, drawing the attention of a great many people around him.

"Hmm. The science building was here in my dimension. I wonder why it doesn't exist in this one." He stepped out of the machine and looked around him, then walked over to the nearest person to him.

"Excuse me ma'am, but are cigarettes legal in this dimension?" The woman, looking a bit shocked by the sudden appearance of this man out of this strange device, nodded. "Oh thank god, I've finally found it! Could you direct me towards the nearest smoke shop?" The woman nervously pointed to a small shop behind her, and Doctor Williams immediately headed towards it.

Once inside, the man cheerily put a few bills down on the counter. "I'd like a pack of smokes and a lighter please," he said.

The man staffing the shop looked at him a bit oddly, but still handed him a pack of cigarettes and a cheap plastic lighter. Doctor Williams took them gladly, and was about to light his cigarette when a strangely muscular baby appeared in front of him. Dropping his things, he quickly caught the baby.

Raising his eyebrow, the Doctor looked at the baby. "I don't suppose you're from a dimension where babies can talk, are you?" The baby merely sat in his arms and looked cute. Frowning, the Doctor shifted the baby into a more convenient position. "Well then, I suppose it falls to me to take care of you."

Exiting the shop, the Doctor brought the baby to his Relative Dimension In Space device and put it in the side seat. "Well, you can be my partner, I guess. What's your name?" He searched the boy until he found a name tag on his wrist. "Ah. Well, Gregory Goyle, it's your lucky day. I just so happened to need a companion in my travels."

* * *

Doctor John Watson stepped into the local smoke shop on his way back from picking up the groceries. He smiled to the man staffing the shop, and placed a few bills down on the counter. "I'll have three boxes of nicotine patches please," he said.

The man handed him the patches, then turned back to his newspaper, apparently interested in the mysterious series of murders that occurred last night. John was in the middle of picking up the boxes when a strangely muscular baby suddenly appeared in midair. Surprised, he moved forwards and caught the baby out of midair, squashing a few of his groceries in the process. Burdened under the sudden weight, he shifted the baby to one hand while he gathered up the boxes of patches with the other.

"Now where did you come from?" he asked the baby, knowing full well that it wouldn't answer. Figuring out impossible events was more Sherlock's forte, not his. Thanking the show owner, he walked back to Baker street.

As soon as he arrived in the apartment, John knew something was wrong. The lights were all off, the window shades were drawn, and most importantly he didn't hear Sherlock. No tapping at keys, no wild ranting about something in the news, no violin screeching… something was terribly wrong. Carefully setting the baby and the groceries down on the table, he walked carefully through the apartment until he arrived at Sherlock's room's door. Carefully pushing open the door, he almost screamed when he saw Sherlock floating cross-legged, upside down, about a foot off his bed. Then Sherlock opened his eyes.

"Ah, John. Welcome home. I think I've found a major lead in the case."

John stared at him like he was insane. "How… how are you floating like that?"

"Oh, this?" Sherlock suddenly righted himself and floated back down onto the bed. "Magic, John. It's not that difficult." Suddenly sniffing the air, he looked straight at John. "You've bought the patches." The tall man strode out of the room and into the living room, then called back to John. "Oh, patches _and_ a clue."

John ran out to see Sherlock inspecting the baby quizzically. "What are you doing, Sherlock?"

"This baby is magic," he said without even looking up. "It's the only way to explain the sequence of events that must have led to your bringing it home, and the only way for the murders last night to have happened. Very well John, we will keep him."

John stammered for a few moments, but his mind blanked except for one question. "Well what will we name him?"

Sherlock looked at him incredulously. "Really John? I expected more from you." he pushed the baby's sleeve up with a pencil, while still inspecting its hairline. "Vincent Crabbe. Though I do believe I will be renaming him Vincent Holmes."

* * *

Hayato Asakawa was working on his newest robot when the baby fell from the sky.

The baby smashed through his robot, sending debris everywhere. Hayato was understandably distressed at the destruction of his newest giant robot, but not enough that he didn't duck for cover when the metal started flying.

"What the fuck!" he exclaimed as he hid behind a nearby pillar. "Ina! What the fuck was that?"

His feminine robotic lab assistant ran a scan, then beeped. "Scans show that it is a human baby," it said.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Hayato peeked around the pillar only to immediately pull it back as a large strip of metal narrowly missed his face. "Ina! Why the fuck did a baby smash my robot? And why isn't it dead?"

The robot beeped again, then responded. "The baby appears to have suddenly come into existence a couple of miles above Tokyo. It is unknown how the baby survived."

Hayato suddenly turned as he heard a knocking at his workroom door. A whiney sounding voice came from the other side. "Are you in there, Hayato? I thought you were going to send out another robot for us to fight!"

Hayato yelled back. "Don't come in here, Kotarou! It's dangerous!"

Kotarou, of course, didn't listen. He opened up the workroom door, and was immediately hit by a giant metal slab. Hayato facepalmed.

"I'm okay!" called Kotarou from underneath the metal sheet.

Ina beeped again. "Master, the debris is now clearing. If you would like to, I can get rid of the child for you."

Hayato shook his head. "No, I want to keep this one. If its ability to survive that fall is really that unexplainable, I want to inspect it, figure out how it works." Looking around the pillar, he confirmed that there were no more metal bits incoming before stepping out to inspect the alleged baby in the center of the crater. The child looked small, probably about one year old. He picked it up, inspecting it for any damage from the fall. There was none, but he did find a tag with a name on it. "So, your name is Daphne Greengrass…"

"Yeah, that kid's name is great, I'm still stuck here!" cried Kotarou.

* * *

Somewhere in Greece, a summer camp was in full swing, despite it being almost winter. This could easily be explained by the fact that most of the camp's "campers" actually lived there.

Camp Advisor Ianus walked through the campgrounds, feeling the crisp cold air on her skin, and the leaves crunching underfoot. She walked through the forest and passed a river, waving a greeting to the centaurs, pixies, and nymphs as she passed them. Soon she passed through the forest and began walking the camp perimeter, keeping an eye out for possible threats. She was about halfway around the perimeter when she spotted it.

Just outside of the camp perimeters was a crying baby, and just above the baby was a winged demon. The bird seemed to be trying to manipulate itself into a position where it could attack the baby without touching the camp shields. When Ianus saw it preparing to dive, she threw herself over the boundary and stood in front of the baby, already nocking an arrow into her bow. She fired the arrow at the bird demon, cutting across its wing. The demon, noticing that its prey was now no longer as undefended, flew away in disgust.

Ianus picked up the baby and quickly brought it over the camp boundary. With the demon attacking this child, there could be no doubt. Demons only attacked Demigods. While there still remained the question of how this baby had come to be at the edge of this camp, Ianus suspected it to be either the work of a Greater Demigod, or the interference of a god.

By the time Ianus got back to the camp, the first of the campers were rising, and the first sounds of clashing swords began to ring through the camp. Ianus headed straight for the Admin's Cabin.

She spoke to the satyr at the desk. "I would like to register this child as a new camper. He was found by the edge of the camp, being attacked by a demon."

The satyr handed her a form. "Fill this out."

Ianus looked at the form. Right on the top line was a box that read "Camper's Name". Ianus decided to search the baby for anything identifying, and seen found the tag attached to the baby's wrist. Smiling, she wrote down, on the top of the page, the name Ernest Macmillan.

* * *

Halthor Thorinson trudged through the icy plain, waist deep in snow. He pulled behind him the dead body of a fully grown polar bear, its white fur clean of blood. Upon closer inspection, one would discover that this polar bear had not been killed by any instrument, but rather, it seemed the polar bear had had its neck snapped.

The man pulling the giant bear seemed unaffected by its weight, just as he seemed unaffected by the temperature, despite his wearing only a pair of shorts and no shirt, revealing his massive and well toned muscles.

After several minutes of this trudging, the giant man stopped in the middle of the snow for seemingly no reason. He let go of the dead bear and began to dig through the snow, forming small holes, as if looking for something. After a few seconds of this, he evidently decided on something and stood still, then the man yelled furiously as a glowing aura formed around his body. The man's already long and unkempt hair flared out behind him, and the snow in a wide circle around him melted, revealing a shivering young boy with bright red hair lying on the ground.

The man, with a powerful glowing aura surrounding him, who now seemed even more powerful than before, picked up the child and gently hugged him close to his chest. The warmth radiating from his body quickly warmed the child up, putting a stop to his shivering and allowing the boy to fall into a much more peaceful sleep. Halthor, clutching the baby in one arm, grabbed the bear in the other and, as if the bear weighed nothing, sprinted towards his home, leaving a path of melted snow in his wake.

When he arrived back home, the man placed the boy by his fire and began to prepare the bear, tearing the creature's meat off of its bones with his bare hands. After several minutes of preparation, he had a meat stew boiling over the fire. As the stew cooked, he watched the boy sleep, deciding that Ronald Weasley would be a worthy heir.

* * *

Khalia was a Dragon. More specifically, she was a Bluescale dragon, one of the few remaining in the world. She and her mate, a Redscale, both lived in one of Sweden's most well protected valleys, with strong protections designed both to protect those within from those without, and more importantly to protect those without from those within. The Valley of the Dragons.

The wards around this valley were of ancient magic, supposedly placed there thousands of years ago by the original inhabitant of this valley, the Lord Emperor of Dragonkind. These days, it was a Dragon sanctuary, inhabited chiefly by the last members of nearly extinct species, such as the Bluescale and Redscale species, who had been hunted nearly to extinction for their jewel like scales. The wards would let only Dragons in and out of the valley, and for the most part even the mightiest wizards knew nothing of the valley, with a few rare exceptions.

This is why it came as such a great surprise to Khalia to find, upon her returning to her cave, two human children crawling about on the floor. She quickly called her mate, the Redscale Leion, who reacted much like she did.

"Why in the name of the Lord Emperor are there _Human Children_ in our cave?" exclaimed Leion, a mix of shock and fear across his visage.

Khalia was about to speak when she caught a whiff of something strange. Arching her long neck closer to the children, she sniffed, and was able to identify the smell. "It's unstable magic," she said. "These two were not brought here, nor were they deliberately sent in. They were likely teleported in by an unstable teleportation spell."

"Oh," said Leion. "Well then, I guess this is the part where we throw them out of the valley then." He moved forwards and, using his mouth, carefully picked up one baby by its shirt.

"Wait, Leion. We can't do that to them." Khalia looked sorrowful. "These two wouldn't survive out there, we would be condemning them to death. I cannot do that to them."

Leion flicked the baby upwards and caught it on his head, leaving his mouth free to speak. "So what do you suggest we do with them then?" he asked, moving his head side to side to entertain the baby, who was squealing in joy.

Khalia moved to stand beside the remaining child, curling her tail around it lovingly. "I suggest that we keep them. It wouldn't be the first instance of one of our species being raised by the other side."

Leion smiled at this. "Yeah, but usually its the other way around. Whatever though. I'm up for keeping them," he conceded.

Khalia smiled in return. "Well, I don't suppose you happen to know any human names?" she said.

"Oh, but I do," said Leion, jokingly attempting an air of mysteriousness. "This one on my head shall be called Parvati, and that one hugging your tail shall be Padma."

Khalia quirked her mouth. "Alright, I ask. Where did you get those names from?"

With a bit of smugness, Leion used his tail to push up the sleeve of the baby on his head. "Elementary, my dear. They're labeled."

* * *

Chief Kalos stepped out of the temple, leaning heavily on his petrified wood staff. He looked around the village, hidden within a small clearing in the center of the jungle. All around the village was the darkness of the jungle, infested with thousands of species, almost all potentially deadly to humans, some aggressively so. Despite this, the village was able to survive quite well, thanks to the Guardians.

The Guardians were a group within the village, which Chief Kalos was the head of. They were the protectors of the village, able to protect the regular townspeople using the powers which they obtained through meditation and training within the temple. Powers such as monstrous strength, nigh invulnerability, and very high speed. Powers which Kalos believed came from Ki.

The rest of the villagers, and even his subordinate Guardians, disagreed with him. They believed that the powers were granted by the god of the temple. Kalos, though he believe them wrong, could do nothing to dissuade them, and so he let it be.

Today, he was walking the village again, deep in thought about more potential uses of this force he called Ki. As he passed by one of the village farms, he felt a movement from the forest, and turned to see a giant panther run into the village, with a small child clutching to its back. The panther was thrashing about, seemingly trying to throw the child off but unable to do so. Kalos jumped in instantly, flash stepping to the panther and holding its head down using one hand as he tried to retrieve the child with the other. However, even now the child didn't seem to want to let go, and it clutched to the fur on the panther's back for dear life. Behind him, he sensed as the other Guardians, flash stepped in.

The panther snarled at him, trying to turn its head enough to bite, but Kalos continued to hold its head down. Looking at the baby, he was trying to figure out how to convince it to let go of the panther's fur when he felt a surge of… _something… _something that felt like… _magic?_ Suddenly the panther stopped snarling and relaxed, seeming almost docile. Surprised, Kalos released the panther, and it simply stood there calmly, with the baby clutching to its back straddling it like a mount.

"My gods," breathed one of his senior guardians. "It is the goddess of the Jungle reborn."

Kalos looked back at him with annoyance. _These men look to superstition to explain everything,_ he thought, frustratedly. _Still,_ decided Kalos as he turned back to the child on the panther, _I'm not sure even Ki can explain this. May as well let the men believe what they want. Perhaps I could raise this "god", such that it would "guide" these villagers in at least a productive manner._

"Yes," he said. "The coming of the reborn god is upon us. She who shall lead us, and guide us. As Chief, I shall take it upon myself to care for the god."

One of the Guardians spoke. "What then, Chief Kalos, is the name of this new manifestation of our god?"

Kalos was about to speak when he once again felt that… something… _something accidental… _"Her name, as it has been revealed to me, is Sue Li." Suddenly he frowned, wondering where that name had come from. It certainly hadn't been the one that he intended. Looking back at the child, he wondered. _Could this child be a god after all?_

* * *

Somewhere in Paris, it was night. Many lights still lit the city, but this museum in question was closed, all the lights out, but still patrolled by legions of guardsmen.

Eva d'Aramitz pressed herself up against the wall, virtually becoming one with the shadows as she disappeared from sight. Waiting until the guard patrol had passed her hiding place by, she continued her infiltration of this museum, knowing exactly what target she had in mind.

She continued to creep down the hallway, keeping next to the wall for ease of hiding. Suddenly, just as she was approaching a corner, she saw the light of a flashlight about to turn it. Immediately she jumped almost straight up to the ceiling, holding herself against it as she watched the guard pass below her. As soon as he had passed, she dropped back down to the ground, her practiced feet making no sound and no footprint, even on these dusty floors.

Soon enough she arrived at her destination, only a locked metal door standing between her and the room. She looked over the electronic lock on the door and placed a small device on it. She pressed a few buttons and the device whirred, unlocking the door.

Pushing the door open, she watched for a tripwire or alarm but found none. All that stood between her and her target were… she pulled a small canister out of her bag, spraying it into the room and revealing… the maze of detection lasers that criss crossed the room. With the lasers now visible she was easily able to weave her way through the lasers, jumping and tumbling through with practiced ease. Soon enough she made her way to the back of the room, where , sitting on a cushion, was a golden crown, covered with diamonds. Reverently, she carefully lifted the crown off of the cushion, kissed it, and stuffed it into her loot bag. Happily, she turned back to the lasers, preparing to make the return journey.

Suddenly she felt something wrong behind her, a small twinge about a foot away… and a baby appeared, just within the maze of lasers. Her eyes widening, Eva ran forwards and dove in, reaching out her hands to try to catch the baby before it hit the laser. Time seemed to slow down as she ran, at if counting down the seconds to her doom. The baby fell, the lasers pulsed, Eva stretched, hoping that bit of extra distance would make a difference…

And it did. She caught the baby just millimeters from the laser. Relieved, she sighed and lowered her arms… straight into the lasers.

Frowning, Eva was forced to extend her Ki field and shut off the lasers and the alarm before they could alert the guards to her presence. She held up the baby, frowning at it. "You, little one, are a troublemaker. I was going to try to do this without using my Ki." The baby blew a spit bubble and it popped, leading the baby to squeal with joy. Quirking her lips, Eva stuffed the baby into her loot bag as well, and simply walked out through the Ki unlocked front door, with a diamond crown and a baby named Leanne Laughland in her bag.

* * *

Mr. and Mrs. Smith were a normal couple. They chatted with their neighbors, went to neighborhood events, hosted barbecues, and even babysat children sometimes, although they had no children of their own.

Most neighbors would describe the Smiths as "friendly". They all knew that Mr. Smith was the President of some company that they'd never heard about, and that Mrs. Smith worked as a department head in the same company. They shared these details frequently at their barbecues, after all, it wasn't as if they had anything to hide.

You know, besides the fact that they were Greater Devils of Hell.

The Smiths, or Lucifer and Lilith to their coworkers, were the owners of Hell Inc. They had, long ago, started the company together, and after a great deal of office dramas that would likely fill several season of a TV show, got it stable enough that they could settle down in suburban New York. There they had about as peaceful a life as two Greater Demons could.

One such peaceful day, the Smiths were just sitting down to have breakfast when Lilith said to Lucifer something he'd been dreading ever since they settled down.

"Don't you think it's time we thought about having children?"

Lucifer looked up from his bowl of Wheaties, his mind suddenly scrambling for a way out of this situation. "Um, whatever do you mean by that, dearest?" he said, stalling for time.

"Oh, Lucy-" Lucifer winced at the nickname. "We've been together for thousands of years now, and we're still childless. I've been talking to Persephone lately, and she's already got so many children. Isn't it time for us to start a family?"

Lucifer looked very nervous now. "Well Lilith, aren't you rushing this a bit? I mean, we've been perfectly fine with just the two of us for this many years, why stop now? Heh heh heh…" he laughed nervously, desperately hoping that his wife would be dissuaded.

Lilith, however, was seemingly determined to see this through. "Lucy, that's no way to think. You and I both know that change is important sometimes. I just wish there were some way to have children without all the pains of birth."

Suddenly, as if hearing her request, the cosmos saw fit to teleport a baby in directly onto the Smith's breakfast table. Lucifer jumped up in shock, upending his very soggy wheaties onto the floor as he tried to make sense of this. Lilith, on the other hand, immediately picked up the baby and held it close, hugging it warmly in her arms. Lucifer, as if suddenly realizing something, marched out into the back yard and screamed at the sky. "Damn you, God! Damn you!"

Their next door neighbors were a bit surprised at this change in the normally kind and composed Mr. Smith, but later, after they heard about the Smith's new baby, they smiled and recounted their own reactions to their first conception. Something about a broken condom.

And so, the neighborhood gained a new resident in the form of Hannah Abbott-Smith.

* * *

A mountain goat walked between the sparse trees, chewing a bit of dry grass. Far behind him, a shadow approached, creeping slowly towards the creature. The fallen leaves of autumn lay underfoot, undisturbed by the shadow's passing by. The dark creature stalked from tree to tree, making no sound, no smell, and leaving the entire forest completely undisturbed, as if the creature truly was but a shadow.

As the shadow neared the goat, carefully pulled an arrow out from its quiver and nocked it to the bow, training the arrow on the goat before letting it fly. The goat keeled over, dead the instant the arrow hit it. The shadow broke cover and sauntered over to the goat to inspect it.

The creature that eventually came to the goat still looked a lot like a shadow. Its skin was dark as night, while its hair glinted a bright white. As the creature knelt down to inspect the goat, a pair of pointed ears slipped out from behind the hair.

"That was terrible, Zhak," said a voice coming from the trees. "You broke cover without first determining the safety of your position, you allowed an unknown foe to approach you without your notice, and most importantly, your arrow impacted the deer a full millimeter off mark."

Zhak frowned, a bit annoyed, and inspected the deer. The arrow had flown straight and true, piercing directly through the goat's pupil and into its brain. "What are you talking about, Master Intal? The arrow has gone right through the target!"

Suddenly a pine nut hit Zhak in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. Behind him, a very short form revealed itself, standing on one of the upper branches of a tree, several pine nuts in his hand. "Do not question me, apprentice. The arrow only went through the target because I caused it to hit there. After all, I am not willing to allow your idiocy to stop me from enjoying dinner tonight. However, just for that idiotic comment, I don't think you will be enjoying the same."

The younger dark elf threw up his hands in frustration. "You know what? I'm through with this. I've put up with your name calling and your abuse for far too long already. I'm done." He threw the bow and quiver onto the ground and stormed off. "I'm going back to the village. Don't follow me."

Intal watched the boy sadly as he trudged off. Yet another apprentice who couldn't bear the effort of learning this most sacred technique. Intal wondered if perhaps he should have a son of his own. After all, he'd be able to train the boy from birth rather than just on weekends like these other children, and his own child wouldn't exactly be able to quit being his son. Intal was smiling at the genius of that plan when a baby suddenly appeared in the clearing below.

"Why hello there," Intal said as he looked at the baby that was almost as tall as he was. "I don't suppose you want to be my apprentice, do you?" The baby, despite not understanding what he was saying, began to crawl over to the discarded bow and arrows. Intal almost weeped. _This is a boy after my own heart. Very well then, whatever fates brought him to me. I will raise this boy as my son._

He jumped down from his vantage point and helped the baby to lift up the bow, looking at him while imagining the possibilities. The, Intal spotted the boy's name tag. "Well then, Theodore Nott, consider yourself the new apprentice to Intal, Master of the Bow."

* * *

Tagget "The Emperor" Jackson sat back in his leopard skin throne, listening to his subordinates deliver news to him.

"Emperor Jackson sir, our agents have successfully attained five million dollars out of several casinos on the strip, using your technique."

Tagget smiled a cold and calculated smile. "Very good. You will receive your cut shortly." He then turned to his second general. "Now speak, Second General."

The general knelt before him. "Emperor Jackson sir, although a majority of the stores under our protection paid their fees, we encountered some resistance in the northwest sector, although it has been dealt with by the Sigma squad."

Tagget nodded. "Very well. Make sure that a new client moves in soon. Make sure that they understand the dangers of living there, and maybe even tell them about the horrible gang of thugs that took out the previous residents."

The second general nodded and stood back, while the third general approached. "Emperor Jackson sir, the hit on Williams was a success. We were able to dispatch the target with only one minor wound, and no witnesses. The client has already been contacted."

Tagget frowned. "One wound? That will not do. Send the hit squad to training for the rest of today."

"I shall be done, sir," said the third general as he backed away.

The fourth general stepped up nervously. "Um, Emperor Jackson sir. Despite our fullest efforts, none of the designated childbearers have shown any signs of pregnancy." He winced as Tagget stood up furiously.

"This is ridiculous!" stated Tagget angrily. "I wish only for an heir, and you cannot bring me even that!" He approached the fellow, his Ki aura radiating aggressively out around him. "I swear, if you do not provide for me an heir, I will-" Tagget was cut off when a baby suddenly appeared in the fourth general's arms.

Grabbing the baby, Tagget hugged it tightly. "Oh, this is wonderful. An heir, granted to me by divine providence." He turned to his generals, a manic look in his eyes. "Do you not see? This truly is a sign of my God fated destiny to rule." Petting the child in his arms, he smiled a genuine smile. "Here is the proof. A child given to me, born from a holy union between myself and God. This child, this holy heir to my throne, this girl of name Rionach O'Neal."

* * *

Sai Lin Cheng delivered a final kick to her opponent's chest, throwing the man back and into the far wall.

"Ring out! Sai Lin wins yet another match!" Sai Lin jumped out of the flimsy ring in which she had been fighting, and walked over to the rest area to wait for her next match. As she approached the announcer's stand, the announcer and Sai Lin's friend, Jae Yun, stuck her head out of the booth and covered her mic. "Hey Sai Lin, nice job out there! I know I'm supposed to be impartial, but what kind of friend would I be if I didn't support you?"

"Certainly not the kind I'd have," replied Sai Lin, her face remaining impassive.

Jae Yun grinned and stuck her head back into the booth to resume shouting into her mic. "And here we have our next match, Fei Sun versus Jiminy Morris!"

Sai Lin soon arrived at the rest area and flopped down on a couch. Looking around her, at the bare tables and fake flowers, she wondered what she was doing with her life. She had been entering these tournaments all around the country recently, yet no matter how high the bracket was, she still won every time. There was simply no contest. Sai Lin wondered if there even existed anybody who could beat her. If there were, they would have to be quite well hidden indeed.

Just as she was contemplating the possible existence of extranormal forces that might be able to defeat her, a baby appeared in the center of the rest room.

Sai Lin looked at the baby that had suddenly appeared for a few seconds. "What." she finally said.

Getting up from her seat, Sai Lin approached the baby, trying to figure out just what was going on. "It doesn't _look _like a trick," she said as she got nearer to it. Soon she was close enough for her to crouch down and poke it. "And it feels normal."

Making a decision, Sai Lin picked the baby up and threw it over her shoulder, then headed for the announcer's booth.

"Hey Jae Yun, this baby just appeared in the rest area," she said as she entered the booth.

"-and there's another marvelous right hook from Morris, connecting across the jaw!" Jae Yun briefly covered her mic. "What? Appeared in the rest area? You mean like, it walked in?"

Sai Lin shook her head. "No, I mean it literally just appeared, as if out of thin air. One moment I'm looking at nothing, next thing I know there's a baby."

Jae Yun narrowed her eyes. "I wish I could ask if you were joking or not, but I know you too well to think that you'd make jokes. Sounds like you've finally found some proof for your 'extranormal powers' theory."

Sai Lin looked at the baby in her hands, finally processing just how valuable this baby could be, and that perhaps these supposed extranormal forces _did_ exist. "I suppose that is true, Jae Yun. I'll have to study this child further." She glanced at the baby as it waved its hand around, spotting a label on its wrist.

"What's that say?" asked Jae Yun, who had spotted the same thing.

She read off the tag and was a bit disappointed. "Just a name. I suppose its the baby's. Morag McDougal… sounds English."

* * *

Tarrien sat down on the rock under the waterfall and began his daily exercises. The pounding of the waterfall on his head was just one more distraction that he was able to close out, leaving his mind, and his senses, blank.

Tarrien's body began to shift, growing larger, and more powerful. His fingernails grew longer and sharper, and thick brown hair grew out of everywhere on his body. His nose and mouth elongated, and his palms and feet grew pads. In the space of about thirty seconds, he transformed from a human into a bear.

From there, the bear started to grow smaller. Its arms were extended outwards and flattened while its legs grew skinnier and lost their fur. Finally, the bear snout hardened and formed a point while the fur all widened out into feathers. There was now an eagle sitting beneath the waterfall, allowing the pounding pressure to wash over his feathers.

This transformative process was repeated for every one of Tarrien's ninety-two forms, the highest number of forms that anyone had ever achieved. After exercising his existing ninety-two, Tarrien began to work on form ninety-three, a pygmy shrew. He focused on attaining the new form, envisioning every facet and detail of the pygmy shrew, remembered from the laborious studying of the specimen that he had at his home.

Just as Tarrien was about halfway through the slow changing of his features, a baby appeared several feet in front of him, sitting on the bank of the waterfall pond and staring at him with wide eyes. With this shock, Tarrien's concentration was lost and he dropped back to human form.

"What the heck?" he said as he fell backwards into the rushing waterfall. After he recovered, Tarrien approached the baby apprehensively. Soon, he was standing right above the baby, wondering what to do with it.

"Alright so, let me see if I understand," he said to himself. "This baby just appeared out of thin air. It probably got here through some magic that I don't understand. Now, unless the baby suddenly disappears again it's likely that it was dumped here for some reason. Maybe as a test for me, or just to get rid of it." After thinking on this point for a few seconds, he shrugged. "Eh, whatever. I guess I would have gotten a son at some point anyways, though probably not this early."

He picked up the baby and inspected it carefully, as he was used to doing with all ninety-three animals. Soon he found the name tag, and read it. "Well then, welcome to the Canadian Druid village, Kevin Entwhistle."

* * *

Chinua led the procession to bow before the statue of their Mother Wolf, the Lifegiver, the Deathbringer, the caretaker of all life.

He and all the other residents of the Temple of the Wolf stood and brought their offerings to the Mother Wolf. Chinua was the first, laying down a sacrificial cow on the altar and splitting its belly with his Spirit claws. The cow's lifeblood flowed onto the altar, nurturing the Wolf Mother.

Each of the other twenty disciples came forth with their own sacrifice, and soon the altar was entirely soaked with blood. As the final disciple returned from the altar they all bowed, the ritual complete, the beast quelled.

The twenty-one of them left the altar room, and while the other disciples headed back towards the common area, Chinua decided to head to the roof of the temple. Once there, he gazed out into the rolling mists to one side of their temple, and the snow covered mountain to the other. He stepped out onto the snow covered rock and began to climb the mountain, making his way towards a hidden cave that he went to when he wanted to be alone.

When he arrived at the cave, he stepped inside and lit a fire with a touch of his spirit claw. The inside of the cave was lit up, and much to Chinua's surprise, there was a baby huddled in the corner. He walked over to the baby and picked it up, feeling the strength of the wolf within it.

"My my, a new child," he said. "I assume this means we at the temple are in charge of you then."

The baby didn't respond, as it was just a baby.

"Alright then… um..." he paused, then found the name tag and continued. "Alright then Kellah Morris, consider yourself now a Disciple of the Wolf.

* * *

Kumaratunga Chamath lifted off from the runway, signalling to the other fliers behind to fall into formation behind him. He and his Sky Op squad were on a routine mission. Fly over the country, make sure everything is going fine, and investigate the rumors of potential insurgents in the country. While dealing with actual insurgents would normally be the military's job, Chamath was being sent with his Sky Ops to investigate because of their mobility.

As the group flew over the country, Chamath spotted a village up ahead, and signalled to his men to go for a bit of a show-off maneuver. After all, letting the population see what their military was like could both quell fear of enemies, and possibly dissuade insurgents. As the squad flew over the village, they pulled into an upwards loop and spin while branching off a bit, creating a wonderful sight for the people below. The townspeople were all gathered outside, pointing at the fliers above in a mixture of excitement and disbelief.

It probably had something to do with the fact that none of them were in a vehicle of any sort.

Maybe the way that none of them had any visible means of staying up in the air, and thus sort of resembled a team of Supermen.

The Sky Ops team was using a technique that Chamath himself had discovered and pioneered, which he then gave to the Sri Lankan government. In return, they made him Head of the very first Sky Ops squad, and possibly Commander of any future squads as well. Although Chamath had been reluctant to participate in military use of his technique, he eventually agreed, hoping that he would never have to use the technique for war. So far the Sri Lankan government had been able to keep a pretty tight lid on what they were calling the "Skymen Project", but Chamath suspected that soon enough every government in the world would be training their own Sky Squad.

It was as Chamath was pulling out of his loop that he heard a couple people screaming from the ground and pointing up. As Chamath looked to where they were pointing, he saw a baby plummeting from the sky, falling directly towards the ground. With no time to waste, Chamath flew towards the baby at his top speed, the wind blowing his hair back as he pushed against air resistance. He jetted and dove, and almost slammed into the baby, cupping it in his arms as he pulled out of the dive.

He looked up to see if he could figure out where the baby had dropped from, but saw nothing. Shrugging, he inquired with the rest of his team, but none of them saw anything either. Eventually Chamath decided to leave the Sky Ops squad in the hands of his second in command while he headed back to base to deal with this baby. On the return trip, a tag dangled off of the baby's wrist, loosened by the force of the wind. Chamath stopped and looked at it.

"Terry Boot? That doesn't sound like a Sri Lankan name." He shrugged, then continued to fly back to the base, hoping that someone there might know what to do.

* * *

Grand Advisor Rashidi sat at the foot of the golden throne, wondering how to proceed. The First Temple had been without a Pharaoh for some time now, the previous one having passed away almost ten years ago. Since then, Rashidi had searched for a new Pharaoh, but to no avail. None of the prospects had the blood of the Pharaohs in them.

Since then, it had fallen upon Rashidi to lead the Temple. Though he did so to the best of his abilities, and did so in such a way that he knew the previous Pharaoh would have agreed with, many of the Temple residents were complaining, not on his decisions, but simply on his not being a Pharaoh.

Now, he sat by the throne, with the ancient golden staff and cloak of the First Pharaoh sat, waiting for the replacement that Rashidi was beginning to think might never come. They gathered dust in this most ancient of halls, waiting patiently, always waiting.

Rashidi looked up sharply as he felt a presence enter the Hall, but calmed down when he saw that it was only Halima.

"Grand Advisor, I see you are here yet again," she said. "Come now, what good will sitting by an empty throne do? You must go out and be with the people, show them that you can lead."

Rashidi shook his head. "Halima, you know that it is not I that they want. They wish for a Pharaoh, even if only to act as a figurehead. This throne has been empty for far too long, and it pains me to see these sacred artifacts gather dust, with nobody to take them up."

Halima came over and sat next to Rashidi. "One may yet someday come. You only have to keep searching, and not lose faith. If we are willed to have a Pharaoh, then the gods will guide our hand. Perhaps this absence of a Pharaoh is a sign, Rashidi. Perhaps it is time for you to take up these artifacts yourself?"

Rashidi shook his head. "That is one thing which I cannot do. The cloak and staff will reject any owner without the blood of the Pharaohs, a quality which I do not-" he was cut off as he felt yet another presence enter the room, but this one strangely small, and somehow… behind him?

Rashidi turned his head and saw, crawling on the headboard of the Pharaoh's throne, a small baby. Rashidi only stared in shock and disbelief as the baby tried to crawl forward, only for its leg to slip, sending it tumbling off the headboard and towards the artifacts. Rashidi snapped out of his daze as he saw the baby fall, but by that point it was too late. The baby fell and landed on top of the golden cloak, which broke its fall. It then sat up and grabbed the golden staff, trying to fit the staff into its mouth.

Rashidi froze once again when the baby hit the cloak, but when it grabbed the staff, it was clear. "This is it, Halima. This is why the gods had us wait for so long. So that we may have this child as Pharaoh." He moved towards the throne and, as if he were handling the most precious substance in the world, carefully picked the baby up and draped the cloak across its shoulders. He excitedly brought the baby out into the main room, where the other Temple residents were. Holding the baby high above his head, all sound in the room stopped as they noticed the baby with the golden cloak on its shoulders.

"Look, my brothers and sisters. Look and see. The gods have seen fit to grant us a new Pharaoh, one with the blood of the Pharaohs coursing through their veins. Though this Pharaoh is still young, soon they will grow and lead us all. All hail Pharaoh Lavender Brown!"

"All hail Pharaoh Lavender Brown!" the crowd repeated.

"And may the gods be with us."

* * *

Tanya Mello walked out of the jungle and into the encampment. The men sitting throughout the encampment reacted with surprise, drawing their guns and moving to surround her. Tanya held up her hands to show that she was unarmed, but the men didn't stand down, continuing to point their guns at her.

One man who appeared better dressed than the rest came forwards. "Ah, you must be one of those savage Amazon women. Just what we were looking for." The man looked disinterestedly at his fingernails. "Here to try to negotiate us off? Well don't bother. Your village has been an obstacle for too long. I think you'll find that if you don't vacate that plot of rainforest for us, we'll be forced to…" he gestured to the assembled men, enough to make up a small army. "...remove you."

Tanya crossed her arms and looked at the man incredulously for a few moments. Finally she sighed. "Well then, I was planning on just telling you all to leave before you're all killed, but it seems that's a lost cause." She unfolded her arms and began to crack her knuckles.

The man laughed haughtily. "I don't think you understand, though that's expected, given that you are but a savage. You see, I have five hundred men here, and each one of them is armed with an Uzi. From what I've learned, your village has only about one hundred people, and you have no weapons to speak of. Let me tell you, you savages should have just moved when we told you."

Tanya shook her head, chuckling. "No, I believe it is you who does not understand. You see, our village does not have any weapons, because we have no need for them. Here, let me give you a demonstration. After all, if your five hundred men cannot defeat me alone, then how could you even hope to fight our entire village?" She looked at the men surrounding her, smirking. "I'll give you all one last chance to leave alive."

The man looked a bit troubled at her smirk, but discounted it. "Alright, you've asked for it. Men, open fire!"

The men all began to pull the triggers, and Tanya grinned, activating her Spirit energy.

* * *

"Oh God please oh God just let me leave I'll tell them never to bother you again please!" The once composed man now backed away desperately, his eyes wide in terror at the beast that stood in the center of the camp, surrounded by corpses and covered in blood. The creature turned to look at the man, her eyes showing nothing but pure beastial bloodlust. She grinned, revealing her sharp, predatory teeth, dripping with the blood of those around her.

"I warned you mister," the beast said in a guttural tone, as if some beast were trying to speak. "I warned you, but you didn't listen. Now you have to suffer the consequences." The beast lunged, and everything went red.

* * *

Tanya stood, her Spirit energy safely locked away again. Turning, she spat on the corpse of the leader, though it was barely recognisable as a corpse anymore. As she turned to walk back to the village, she heard a sound from the center of the encampment, and she ran over to see a tiny child sitting in the blood, crying. Turning her head to the side quizzically, Tanya looked at the baby.

"You certainly couldn't have been there while I was using the bloodlust, or you would be dead."

The baby didn't seem to care about this illogicity, continuing to exist somehow despite all signs that it should be dead. Finally Tanya threw her hands into the air and walked up to the baby, picking it up. "Oh, so you're a girl. I guess you can join the village then." She looked over the baby for a few moments and found the tag, before continuing back to the village, whistling as she went. "Susan Bones huh? I've always wanted a daughter."

* * *

A wraith that was Tom Riddle witnessed all these events from his vantage point in the spirit world. He had been careless, he realized, to allow himself to be defeated by but a baby. Yet now, his plan to create a "Dark Year" at Hogwarts had failed, and every one of the thirty-seven involved was now being trained by some master around the globe. In ten years these children would enter Hogwarts, not as helpless children, but as creatures of immense power.

However, now that Tom had recognised his carelessness, and identified it as his point of downfall, he wasn't about to spend these next ten years idle. Oh no, there was much too much to be done in ten years, if he hoped to kill the Boy-Who-Lived. He had found kindred spirits here in the spirit world, who had told him of the ability of wraiths such as himself to absorb from humans, stealing their strength, their techniques, and leaving them but a lifeless husk. Though many of these masters could detect intrusions from the spirit world, there were oh so many more mundane humans for him to leech off of. No, indeed this would not be an idle ten years.

* * *

**Bonus:**

Auror Thomas Deepwater found himself suddenly somewhere he didn't recognise, on a street somewhere, surrounded by… men that looked like fish?

Turning to the nearest one, he spoke frantically and shakily. "Where… where is this?" he said, doing his best to not hyperventilate.

The man looked at him like he was an idiot. "Why, this is Atlantis of course. What are you, daft? And why is your skin so… freakishly pink?"

That did it. Thomas collapsed, hyperventilating. The man stood above him, concern on his face. "Oh my, this isn't good. Mary, call an ambulance. This man needs help. Be sure to tell them about his skin condition as well."

Ten minutes later an ambulance arrived, and the paramedics gathered around him, trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

"What's with his skin?" asked one doctor.

"I'm not sure. It looks all pinkish." said another, in a more feminine voice.

"I think the real issue here is that he's having trouble breathing." said a third. "Could it be a gill problem?"

Suddenly the group parted to let in a fourth man, who leaned heavily on a cane as he walked. The man hobbled up to Thomas and poked him with his cane, then looked up. "It's Lupus."

* * *

**Next Chapter: Six Years Later**

* * *

A/N: Oh god what was I thinking doing a story with 37 protagonists.

Not only that, but the next chapter will have to be even _longer_.

Alright, so I'm going to do a thing. Due to the scene based nature of the next chapter, I'm going to ask for some help. If you would like to write the six years later scene for some character, just send me a PM with the names of one or more characters, and I'll send you back one or more available ones with a very basic overview of a few points that need to happen during that scene. I'd like any submissions to be sent to me within a week, and all scenes should be around 1,000 words long. That shouldn't be a limit or a minimum, just a general guideline.

As always, all reviews are appreciated, especially criticisms. We learn from our mistakes, but they don't do us any good if we never find out about them.

Yewchung, signing out.


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